


I'll Love You Forever

by midnightruse



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Character Death, I'm Sorry, Inspired by Fanart, M/M, SHEITH - Freeform, Self-Sacrifice, vld
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 04:16:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14708918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightruse/pseuds/midnightruse
Summary: He had never understood how someone could love him forever, but he’d finally started to believe it was possible.Their love was endless. It was the most powerful thing he had ever experienced in the universe. It was hotter and brighter than any star, drawing him in like a black hole. No matter how many forces tried to pry them apart, they always found their way back to each other. They always found their way home.Shiro was his home, his everything. He would do anything to make Shiro smile. He would do even more to keep him safe.The thing is, Keith loved Shiro, but he was also selfish. He could not exist in a reality where Shiro was not standing by his side. That’s why, when it came down to saving himself or saving the man he loved, the decision was already made.“This isn’t the end for you.”





	I'll Love You Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by AdrianFindsNemo's beautiful [art](https://twitter.com/AdrianFindsNemo/status/996139141472702464/). I hope you like it <3

 “Will you always love me?”

A question he asked often. Love certainly didn’t come easy for him, but even harder to believe was that someone else could ever really, truly love him.

“I’ll love you forever.”

It was the same answer every time. These were the words spoken first accidentally; that _I love you_ that stops hearts and freezes eyes open wide before they turn to a passionate but tender kiss and a soft laugh. A phrase said so incredibly often after that, but it never lost meaning.

 

*

 

Forever is a long time.

Forever. A single word thrown about as casually as any other, but its meaning is so vastly indefinite and indeterminable and inexhaustible. It is exactly as it sounds — it is for _ever_.

 

*

 

He had never understood how someone could love _him_ forever, but he’d finally started to believe it was possible.

Their love was endless. It was the most powerful thing he had ever experienced in the universe. It was hotter and brighter than any star, drawing him in like a black hole. No matter how many forces tried to pry them apart, they always found their way back to each other. They always found their way home.  

Shiro was his home, his everything. He would do anything to make Shiro smile. He would do even more to keep him safe.

The thing is, Keith loved Shiro, but he was also selfish. He could not exist in a reality where Shiro was not standing by his side. That’s why, when it came down to saving himself or saving the man he loved, the decision was already made.

“This isn’t the end for you.”

 

*

 

It had been a bad, long fight, and they were tired. A distress beacon turned into an ambush, and the Black and Red Paladin fell right into the trap.

Keith and Shiro ran, cutting their way through never-ending enemies as they moved around the ship. They just had to hold out until the team got there. Their transmitters were failing though, and they had no confirmation if their own SOS signal had been received.

The ship groaned, and Keith felt something vibrating below his boots. He had accidentally blown up too many things as a kid to not recognize the tell-tale feeling of an impending explosion.

“Shiro, look out!”

Heat blasted through the corridor as both Paladins unsuccessfully tried to throw themselves out of the way. The force slammed Keith into a large support beam, and he cried out as his back struck the metal. He fell to the floor in a heap, and he could smell the ship burning, even through his sealed armor.

Keith hissed in pain as he pushed himself up off the floor. Looking around, he found Shiro similarly situated on the floor across from him, looking even worse off than Keith felt.

Keith stumbled to Shiro’s side, still off-balance as his ears faintly rang from the explosion. At his movement, Shiro smiled. The smile quickly turned into a grimace as the older man tried to stand.

Shiro’s helmet had all but been shattered in the blast. A crack spiderwebbed across the front of Shiro’s helmet, slightly distorting Keith’s view of the thin trail of blood streaking down Shiro’s forehead where he’d been hit. Without a doubt, Keith could tell the integrity of Shiro’s helmet was compromised.

Keith extended a hand down to Shiro. “Are you okay?” Keith knew it was a stupid question, but he had to ask. Even if Shiro would most likely try to convince Keith he was, even if he was not. They were both stubborn like that.

Shiro smiled again, gripping Keith’s hand and pulling himself up with a poorly-concealed wince. “I’m fine. I would have been a lot worse off had you not given me a warning. How did you know?”

Keith shrugged, eyes scanning Shiro for any other visible injuries. He was favoring one leg, and his armor was severely cracked in several places. Not good. “I was a curious kid. I also might have blown up a minor rock formation out near my shack. Needed to let off some steam.”

Shiro’s confusion turned to amusement as he laughed. Keith felt his heart skip a beat. How he got so lucky to have an actual angel laughing by his side in the middle of a war, he would never understand.

 “Your pack is busted,” Shiro’s brow furrowed as he looked at Keith’s disheveled appearance. With a sigh, he met Keith’s eyes and his expression immediately softened. “But really, thank you for the heads up. How many times are you gonna have to save me before this thing is over?” Shiro said it with a smile — it was a running joke of theirs. Keith’s eyes grew determined, as they always did.

“As many times as it takes.”

 

*

 

They kept running and they kept fighting. That had been the first of many explosions. Keith figured the ship was completing a self-destruct sequence, and they were running out of time.

Keith could feel Red in the back of his mind, urging him to wait, to hang on. She was speeding toward them through the vast emptiness of space, the rest of the Voltron Lions somewhere behind her, but Keith knew she could not get there in time. Not to save them both.

Another explosion almost knocked Keith and Shiro off their feet. Keith swore as he stumbled, eyes wide with anger and frustration.

“There’s nothing here! We can’t stay on the ship, but there’s no way out.” He ripped off his helmet in frustration, crossing his arms and glaring at the floor. They had finally reached the ship’s hangar, but there was not a ship in sight.

Keith felt a hand on his arm, and suddenly Shiro was there, calming his nerves, reminding him why he fought — why he could never stop fighting. He would tear apart galaxies for this man.

“We are going to get out of here, Keith.” Shiro had taken off his own helmet some time ago, clipping it to his belt to repair if they ever made it back to the Castle of Lions. It was useless as broken as it was, and the cracks had made it impossible to see well. Now Keith could see his face clearly. The laugh lines around his steel grey eyes, the tuft of white hair falling over his forehead, the tender lips Keith could spend hours kissing and exploring.

Instead of saying anything, Keith leaned forward, standing on his tiptoes to reach the taller man, and kissed Shiro. Keith wanted to believe Shiro, he really did, but he knew false promises would only make the inevitable harder.

The ship was falling apart all around them. Keith could feel the vibrations in the air, and he could hear the groaning as metal bent past its breaking point. There was no sound in space, but inside a collapsing ship, the sound was deafening.

Their kiss was broken off when the ship suddenly turned on its side, sending the two Paladins careening into the wall. Keith watched in horror as bands of metal started to stretch all around the side of the ship. They were out of time.

Keith’s eyes were wild as he looked around the empty room, searching for something, anything that could save them. So long as the force of another explosion didn’t kill him, Keith figured he could survive floating around in space long enough for Red to get there. But Shiro…Keith looked at the broken black and white helmet hanging at Shiro’s hip. Shiro could not survive space without a helmet. Nobody could.

Shiro was going to die.

The floor beneath Keith buzzed, and he could almost taste the charged air. The ship was going to blow.

Shiro was going to die.

Keith’s eyes fell on the button that would open the airlock beside them. The ship was too damaged at this point, and it would be a risk if the blast wouldn’t completely destroy the hangar with them inside it. They had to get out.

Shiro was going to die.

Shiro’s eyes met his own as if he had come to the same conclusion. Even facing his own demise, the man was collected and calm, ever the Black Paladin, the head of Voltron.

 “It’s okay, Keith.”

Keith’s gloved fingers tightened around the red helmet in his hands.

He would not let Shiro die.

“No.” Resolve replaced helplessness on Keith’s face. “It’s not okay, but it will be.”

Shiro’s brow furrowed, lips parting to question Keith’s words. Keith surged forward, silencing Shiro with a hard and bruising kiss. As Keith pulled back, his hands slid his helmet over Shiro’s head, and it connected to Shiro’s armor with a quiet hiss.

Shiro’s eyes widened. “Keith, what are you doing?!”

Keith smiled and reached for the airlock release. “This isn’t the end for you.” His fingers found the button. The room around them started to shake.

Shiro desperately reached for Keith, gripping his free arm tightly. “Keith, wait —”

Keith opened the airlock, eyes fixed on Shiro as the man pulled him close. He didn’t know how long he had, how long it would take for his body to shut down once he was thrown into space, but he would relish every last moment he got to spend in Shiro’s arms.

Shiro would be the last thing he ever saw. He couldn’t think of a better way to die.

“I’ll love you forever.”

**Author's Note:**

> This art broke my heart and I had to write it. Hopefully, I did it justice.


End file.
